and the power of the events before us. They appeal to our faith, and demand of us to act with courage and with confidence in God and in the great laws by which His Church is governed. A year ago, few believed that at this time the Holy Father would be in Rome. It was when the protection of earthly power was about to leave him that he summoned this great gathering. When Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrians, Jeremias bought land in Anathoth. In the face of all danger, and in defiance of all menace, he gave this witness of his immoveable confidence in the promise and power of God. And now, in the presence of a hostile world and all its perturbations, the Pope proclaims a General Council. Let us not be unworthy of this example. The highest conception and enunciation of Catholic truths and principles, without compromise or transaction of any kind, and a calm confidence that God will accomplish His own work in His own time and way, by His own instruments and power, is our duty. What these next years may bring forth, none can say. The Holy Father has declared that the General Council shall be opened on a day marked in his Pontificate and in the history of the Church for ever—the Feast of the Immaculate Conception—but he has not fixed the year. We cannot tell what winds and waves may sweep over Europe and Italy. At any time the whole continent may be on fire from east to west with a terrible war of nations, embittered sevenfold by the working of anti-Christian revolutions. Italy, for its wanton
